Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Say Their Work Relationship is Like a Marriage
Anyone who says the Olsen twins aren’t serious businesswomen has another thing coming to them. Though they will always be known for their careers as child actress they are super successful fashion designers who have earned four CFDA Awards and are extremely well respected by their colleagues in the industry as well as critics.
Both women are involved in the art and manufacturing of their clothing line. They attribute their success to their devoted involvement in the entire garment process. “Running a fashion company, it’s just as important to understand numbers as it is to have a design point of view,” Mary-Kate told Newsweek a few years back.
And now their fashion line, The Row, has launched a menswear component. The ladies, known for their astute attention to detail have been working on this for a very long time. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal about the launch the co-founders said they spent an entire year “really figuring out the fit of the suit.” “We’re talking millimeters,” Mary-Kate said
However, even though the sisters have been working together for years and have basically been business partners and founders of an empire since they were 6 years old, they still have their moments (as anyone would.) In a recent interview “It’s been 32 years of learning how to communicate,” Ashley Olsen said of their relationship that it is like “a marriage and a partnership. We have had ups and downs….We do everything together.” The interviewer, Christina Brinkly, also noted that the girls do finish eachother’s sentences.
The Olsen twins do have an extraordinary situation but it is just something to keep in mind if you are considering going into business with a family member. According to the Family Firm Institute, a research group in Boston, only 30 percent of family-owned businesses make it to the second generation, 10 percent to the third generation, and 3 percent to the fourth.